Lynne Albert moved to the Cleveland area in 2009 and has fallen in love with the city. Although her bachelor’s degree is in illustration, since moving she has focused on writing poetry, composing poems about work, life, and her memories. Being involved in Cleveland's literary community has spurred her creativity. Lynne currently lives in Parma and works as a nurse’s aide for Grace Hospice.

"These poems reflect on a time when Lynne was not so blessed, and the women she knew then."

"Lynne Albert is an empath with a pen, palette, camera lens, and her own sharp eye that catches every tender detail of the damaged and the beauty that arises from the salvage within the rubble. She writes, 'when I was twenty I lost the ability to speak / it was my only way of survival... I fell asleep during conversations: / the best way to remain untouched.' The female subjects of many of the poems have not, however, managed to traverse the world untouched. Abuse and struggles with mental illness are prominent throughout the poems, which are hauntingly overlaid against a backdrop of beautifully-honed photographs documenting the decay of abandoned buildings to highlight the skeletal lives of Albert’s characters. Broken windows and weathered metal reflect a lack of security for those on the street while padlocked doors focus on imposed psychiatric 'incarceration' of others inside 'a room scrubbed clean but musty with filthy secrets / we were hesitant to confess.' This speaker is an indignant activist and willful believer in a world where justice is seeking 'to unlock these doors / break through your walls / and set you free' while questioning if the love of those lost inside themselves can really be 'so violent / it cannot bless / without pain?'" -- Tina Puckett, president of Standing Rock Cultural Arts

24 pages featuring FULL COLOR artwork and photography throughout.

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